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Democraciv: Mark 4
Democraciv: Mark 4 (Mk4) 'was the most recent iteration of Democraciv. Played through C''ivilization V as China on King difficulty, it took place between May and December of 2018. The Government operated according to its Constitution, which divided it into three branches: the Executive Ministry, the Legislature, and the Judiciary. In addition to these branches, public agencies, known as gentries, assisted the branches in the administration of policy. China won the game on December 21, 2018, with a Scientific Victory. Origins Mk4's beginnings date back to early 2018. After the conclusion of Democraciv: Mark 3 ''(Mk3), players immediately began to lay the groundwork for Mk4. This started with the drafting of the Constitution, the primary author of which was LePigNexus. The Constitutional Convention ran from May 23 to June 9. On June 17, a referendum was held, which resulted in 78.6% approval by the populace, thereby ratifying the Constitution. This constitution stood out from that of Mk3, which was considered to be bloated and excessively constraining. The framers of Mk4 sought to simplify the structure of the government and its branches, by specifying minimal, necessary powers and leaving anything unmentioned to the Ministry or to statute. Some have argued that this resulted in ambiguities of what was considered legal and in errors in governance, with several disputes brought before the courts reflecting this. Alongside the vote for ratification was a vote between ''Civilizations V and VI. ''V ''ultimately prevailed with 52.4% of the vote. Political parties began to form, while the vote on what civilization to play also occurred. The first round of voting took place, with China, Austria, Sweden, Arabia, Russia succeeding. In a second round that utilized ranked voting, China emerged victorious with 231 points, ahead of Austria, which earned 218 points. Government The Government of China consisted of three branches: the Executive Ministry, the Legislature, and the Judiciary. It also consisted of gentries, which were formed by consent of these branches. '''Executive Ministry The Ministry served as the executive branch. Containing five members, it was the body that played the game of Civilization V ''in official sessions streamed over Twitch. Barring any restrictions in the Constitution or in statute, all decisions the Ministry made in the game were legal. In addition to playing the game, the Ministry had important powers outside of sessions for that purpose. It approved or vetoed bills passed by the Legislature and made appointments to the Supreme Court and several other offices. Each of the five Ministers was regularly elected through a process known as Single-Transferable Vote and served for four-week terms. While all Ministers had functionally equal power at the start, eventually, a position of Prime Minister was created, to head the body. Other special roles for single Ministers came and went throughout the mark, such as Supreme Commander, Attorney General, and Streamer. '''The Legislature' The Legislature was the lawmaking body of the Chinese government and existed in a unicameral system. All statutes originated here and were passed by majority approval of its members. If the Ministry vetoed a bill, 2/3 of the Legislature could vote to override the veto. It also possessed the exclusive power to impeach any official in government and remove them from office. Unlike the Ministry, the Legislature did not have a fixed size, beyond a lower limit of 5 and an upper limit of 25. Members were elected through Proportional Representation, specifically the Hamilton Largest Remainder method. This was meant to allow the Legislature to reflect the ideological balance of the populace with some degree of accuracy. The Legislature was led by its Cabinet, who were the Speaker and Vice Speaker. Elected by the legislators through approval voting, the Cabinet organized the official voting sessions of the body and oversaw them. The last Speaker and Vice Speaker were Bunti and Taylor, respectively. The Judiciary The Judiciary was the court system of the government. It consisted of the Supreme Court, which issued the highest rulings on cases, and any district courts that the Supreme Court may have called into existence. The First District Court served as the only example in China's history of such a lower court, existing during the Zhou and Qin Dynasties. Exercising judicial review, the courts had the power to uphold or overturn any action, even those of the government, as legal or illegal. While never used for this purpose, the Constitution implied that the courts can also serve as bodies of arbitration. Where the law provided, the courts could issue penalties for criminal behavior, but no convictions ever occurred. They could also issue mandatory writs to individuals and other bodies in the government. Supreme Court The Supreme Court was the senior body in the Judiciary. All legal decisions that it made were indisputable. The last Court consisted of five members: Chief Justice Spaceman and Justices femamerica, Bobster, DaJuukes, and Sparoni. When a case was brought before the Court, it was heard if 2 of the 5 members consented to considering it. Hearings were usually 24 hours long, with a final opinion of the court and decision to be issued 72 hours after the close of the hearing. All opinions were binding and clarified any disputes in the law, instructing the parties involved what the legal solution to be followed was. Where other procedures were not clarified, the Chief Justice had the power to make decisions on behalf of the Court. Justices were nominated by the Ministry and confirmed by the Legislature, wherein they served for a term of eight weeks. Once confirmed, the Justices decided among themselves who would serve as Chief Justice for that term. The Chief Justice was generally the presiding justice over any hearing and usually announced the timelines and decisions of the court. The Court was allowed to create and dissolve up to four lower courts. If necessary, the Chief Justice or the other four justices could assign a special field of law to each court, but this power was never utilized. When lower courts existed, the Court served primarily as an appellate body. First District Court The FDC was the only lower court in the history of Judiciary, created by the Second Supreme Court. It exercised original jurisdiction of all cases brought to the branch. Law required that its three judges be appointed in the same manner as Supreme Court justices, to serve four-week terms. In advance of official appointment, the Court could appoint interim judges to the FDC, who had the power conduct its business until the seats were filled. During its five-week existence, the FDC was run by Judges Dommitor, DaJuukes, and Bis. It heard only a single case, Haldir v. Archwizard, for which Judge Dommitor wrote the opinion. On November 11, 2018, the Third Supreme Court dissolved the FDC. Gentries All agencies of the government were known as gentries. Their structure and scope varied. They were made into existence by consent of the branches of government that created them, through the approval of charters. As such, each one was known as either an executive, legislative, judicial, or joint gentry. Each gentry was headed by a person known as a Scholar-Gentry, who could hold more specific titles (e.g. Attorney General). Examples included the Gentry of Elections and the Public Outreach Gentry. History The four-week, governmental cycles of Mk4 were based on the actual, historical periods of China, which were classified according to its imperial dynasties. With six cycles, the periods were named after China's first six dynasties: Xia, Shang, Zhou, Qin, Han, and Jin. Pre-Dynastic This period was marked by the emergence of political parties and formation of coalitions. The Liberal Party and the Progressive Union officially aligned. Meanwhile, a coalition known as the United Front (UF) formed, consisting of the Blood & Iron Party (B&I), the Unity Party, the Industrial Futurist Party (IFP), and the Anarcho-Syndcalists (A-S). Standing alone, the Celestial Party formed the third major power group. They played a leading role in the success of China as the civilization of Mk4. Xia Dynasty The results of the first elections, held on July 6, produced a split government, with none of the three major power groups possessing a majority in the Ministry or the Legislature. The Liberal-PU coalition won two ministerial seats, as did the UF, with the Celestials winning the last seat. In the Legislature, Liberal-PU won 4 out of 12 seats, the UF won 5, while the Celestials won the remaining 3. Despite the split, the UF emerged in leadership positions, with RetroSpaceMan and Archwizard of the Unity Party rising as China's first Speaker of the Legislature and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, respectively. WesGutt, meanwhile, was made Supreme Commander by the rest of the Ministry. Shortly after the elections, the Liberal Party rebranded as the Order of Dao. On July 16, the B&I and Unity Parties agreed to a merger, forming the Iron Union. The Xia Dynasty was marked by the opening moves of the game and many foundational statutes being passed. In the streams, a scout was famously lost to barbarian attackers, and the City of Wanmei was founded alongside Mt. Kilimanjaro, providing China a critical boost in culture. The vast desert led to the religious adoption of Desert Folklore and the successful construction of Petra allowing for highly productive tiles. Songhai was discovered to the Southwest, while Persia was discovered to the North. RB33 v. China, a landmark case in the Supreme Court, extended the constitutional Right to Vote to the Legislature and all votes by its members during legislative sessions, while also nullifying a legislative recommendation in favor of the Tradition social policy tree. The UF, which initially formed in favor of the Tradition social policy tree, split as the Iron Union began to favor Liberty and voted for it, alongside Dao-PU. With bills stalled 6 - 6 in the legislature, the decision fell to the Ministry. While a majority of Ministers initially favored Tradition, Bear was swayed by a public referendum that supported Liberty and thus cast his deciding vote in favor of it. As the UF began to collapse, a new party, known as the People's Party of China, was formed by Sun Tzu Warrior and ballooned in membership size. The Anarcho-Syndicalists, seeing the UF split, decided to merge with it, forming the Union of the People (UP). Toward the end of the Xia Dynasty, the UP joined the Dao-PU coalition in secret, which created the Grand Coalition (GC). Other hallmarks of this period were the establishment of the Economy, the Religious Cooperative, and passage of the Gentry Foundation Act. Shang Dynasty In the second elections, the Grand Coalition won control of the government. Minsters Bear, Gutt, and Parrish successfully defended their seats, securing a majority in that body for the GC. The Celestial Party lost its seat to the Iron Union. With separate tickets, the GC parties won 47.61% of the vote, entitling them to 8 out of the 15 seats. Haldir of Lorien was then confirmed as Speaker, and Gutt maintained his position as Supreme Commander. Several gentries were established in this period. A legal code was formalized, and the position of Attorney General was created. The power to establish lower courts was also granted to the Supreme Court. Zhou Dynasty In this period, the GC maintained its majority in the Ministry with new candidates. The Legislature grew to an even number of 16 seats, causing the GC's share to fall to 50%, depriving them of a majority. Nevertheless, they maintained the Speakership. With Haldir now representing Dao on the Ministry, SpacePolitics succeeded him has Speaker. A new Supreme Court was confirmed, with Archwizard being the only justice to remain for a second term, while also continuing as Chief Justice. This cycle immediately faced controversy, as Industrial Futurist member Ravis switched to the Glorious China Party after winning a seat as an IFP candidate, without returning the seat. In TheIpleJonesion v. Ravis, the Supreme Court ruled that Ravis could not be compelled to give up his seat in the Legislature, except through the impeachment process. Consequently, the Legislature impeached Ravis and convicted him for his deception of the IFP, removing him from office for a week but mysteriously allowing him a proxy. On September 24, more controversy emerged with the exposure of an elite inner-circle of party leaders, known as the Cabal, who secretly negotiated the events that led to the success of China as Mk4's civilization, the formation of the three-way coalition structure, and the push for Tradition that ultimately failed. Some argued that these negotiations were shady or unethical, while members of the Cabal stated they were less impactful or nefarious than implied by the private investigator who exposed them, Kenlane. The fourth elections, held a week early under new election law, resulted in another legislative majority for the GC but the loss of their majority in the Ministry, as AngusAbercrombie failed to defend his seat for the Progressive Union, which was won by the Celestial candidate Charlie_Zulu. In the week between the election and the start of the next cycle, another controversy emerged when Dao and the Iron Union attempted to introduce a bill, the Head of State Act, that would appoint someone under the titles "Emperor" or "Chairman," while possessing little power. Several people criticized this as a monarchist plot, intended either to weaken the Ministry or undermine republican government. Advocates of the bill stated that it would be a fun idea and that the position was too weak to change anything. The proposal was ultimately defeated in the Legislature, 12 - 3. Qin Dynasty Many of the controversies of the Zhou Dynasty reverberated into the Qin Dynasty, while others emerged. In its first session of the cycle, the Order of Dao and Iron Union had the Ministry declare war on Songhai and capture several of its cities, whereupon Tomboctu was razed to the ground. The Ministry attempted to explain "raze" as merely an acronym for relocating the inhabitants, but most of the public did not accept this. A massive backlash ensued, even among the IU and Dao. The Grand Coalition was called off in this moment, and a new power group, the Coalition of Peace (CoP), was formed, which included the PU, the IFP, and the UP. L&U joined this, shortly after deciding to support the PU. During this fallout, Kenlane, as well as his investigate partners (WesGutt and blondehog), were all banned from Democraciv for developing alternate accounts and using them to infiltrate the servers of the political parties. The timing of these bans with the razing of Tomboctu made it appear that the motives were political, but this is unlikely. Charlie_Zulu, one of the Qin Ministers and a moderator, had also supported the razing of the city. Furthermore, Kenlane, unlike his partners in Dao, had been very much opposed to the war. A number of members left the game at this point, to include those banned and their sympathizers. This had a major impact on Dao and the IU as parties. Concurrent with all of this, the conviction of Ravis in his impeachment trial was also challenged in the Supreme Court. In a 4 - 0 decision, the Court found that improper procedure had been followed, such that the Legislature failed to achieve the consent of two-thirds of "members present" in order to convict. Ravis's conviction was thus overturned and his seat restored to him. He had, however, left the game by this point. The Judiciary developed more. The First District Court was created by the Supreme Court, with Dommitor, Bis, and DaJuukes ultimately confirmed as its judges. The FDC has since held original jurisdiction on matters before the Court. In the fifth elections, the CoP won the largest victory of any election yet. Justice Parrish won back the PU's seat on the Ministry, while L&U also won a seat. This gave the CoP a total of four out of five ministerial seats, at the expense of Dao and the Celestials. Furthermore, the Coalition won nine out of thirteen of the Legislature's seats, giving them a supermajority over two-thirds. The primary reason for the landslide was the high motivation among coalition members in response to the razing of Tomboctu, while the other parties suffered all-time lows in turnout. Han Dynasty Despite the impressive victory by the Coalition, governance proved hectic. Leaders had trouble agreeing on a program for the term, leading to voting inconsistencies. Even L&U, which had declared support to the PU, was not consistent. Furthermore, L&U soon rebranded as the Pink Chinese Party (PCP) and changed allegiances to Dao, causing a anti-Coalition majority to form on the Supreme Court, which resulted in the IU maintaining the position of Chief Justice under former-Speaker Spaceman. The Supreme Court then dissolved the FDC, citing a lack of nominees to it. Disagreements on the Court eventually resulted in the resignation of Justice Bis, who pointed to inappropriate conduct by the other Justices in an official statement. The Coalition faced the abrupt resignation of Speaker Jonesion, just days into the dynasty. This resulted in the rise of Juuz of the PCP as Speaker, costing the Coalition the Speakership. Taylor (PU), however, assumed the role of Vice Speaker. Another area of dysfunction included the Ministry's illegal failure to hold a game session in the third week. A referendum was also held on what the official ideology of China would be. In an upset, Order prevailed over Freedom. Following the sixth elections, which featured record-low turnout, Minister Parrish failed to win re-election. Dao won back their seat from the PCP with Tiberius's victory, while Kenlane, the sole member of the Free Market Capitalists (FMC), won the fifth seat. With a dynasty of several frustrations, the Progressive Union publicly called off the Coalition of Peace with the IFP and UP on Nov. 21. The Han Dynasty was not without accomplishments. The Gentry of Investigations was finally integrated into the Gentry of Justice, under an entirely new charter, where the position of Attorney General was separated from the Ministry. The Ministry also built Big Ben and adopted Mercantilism and Skyscrapers as social policies, which severely reduced public spending costs. The World Congress Committee, a body of Legislators, a Minister, and citizens was established as well. It would not be assembled until the Jin Dynasty, and so the Han Ministry founded the World Congress (becoming its host) and proposed passage of Cultural Heritage sites. Moreover, in an effort to heal the social wounds of the war with Songhai, open borders were granted, to allow for the reunification of families. Jin Dynasty The game began to stagnate in the final cycle. Player participation reached an all-time low. As the holidays approached, the moderator team considered mandating a two-week break in the game. Moreover, in the final elections, the UP won an unprecedented two seats in the Ministry and looked to have major control over the next government. They never were able to realize this gain, as in the final week of Jin, during a session on December 21 filled largely with proxies for ministers, the game was won through a Scientific Victory, due in large part to the fact that Kenlane's computer kept crashing, forcing unsaved turns to be redone and allowing for more efficiency in each re-attempt. The Ministry thus narrowly achieved victory within the 25-turn limit set in law, making the victory legal. Joe Parrish, who was a proxy in that session, delighted in denying his ex-comrades of the UP an opportunity to enjoy the results of their electoral victory. With that victory, the break was unnecessary, and the government of China officially dissolved, leaving two lawsuits before the Supreme Court unresolved. Voting Governmental elections occurred every four weeks. All players had to register under their Reddit handle or Discord username to vote and provide a 4-digit pin. Elections were administered by the Gentry of Elections, which verified all votes and utilized calculator applications to determine outcomes with precision. Ministers were elected as individuals, while legislators were elected through party lists. Irregular elections could occur when referenda were introduced for public approval in the middle of dynasties. Platforms Twitch The official channel where the game was streamed is: https://www.twitch.tv/democraciv Discord The Democraciv server in Discord was the official server for the game and was where most of the proceedings and negotiations occurred. The server was the primary method of party membership, with the role system being used to assign membership, in addition to seats in government. Over 400 people are members of the server, but most of them are inactive. Most of the political parties also had their own private servers for strategy and confidential negotiations. Reddit The official subreddit for Mk4 was the general subreddit for all marks: https://www.reddit.com/r/democraciv/. The subreddit is where elections, legislative sessions, court hearings, propaganda, and other content not suited to the Discord server were posted. It currently has almost 3000 subscribers. Moderation Four moderators oversaw the "exterior" of the game and enforced the rules of the subreddit and server. They were DerJonas, Charisarian, Charlie_Zulu, and Tiberius. Moderators could not interfere with in-game issues and had no power in the government, aside from the roles granted to them by the Legislature in the Gentry of Elections. They mainly enforced rules against cheating, obscene material, discriminatory content, and similar restrictions common to online communities.